DNA provides clues into wandering minds

Published 5:06 pm, Tuesday, November 20, 2012

ATTENTION SPAN

A glimpse into why minds wander

If you're the sort who gets distracted by every new, shiny thing, it may be worth your time to read this description of a new UCSF study.

In a paper published online last week in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, researchers report that they have discovered a possible biological link between the wandering mind and aging.

Their preliminary study concerns telomeres, the DNA caps that protect chromosomes from deteriorating or fusing with neighboring chromosomes. They typically shorten with age, often because of psychological and physiological stress, and can predict early disease and death.

The scientists examined the length of telomeres in 239 healthy women between 50 and 65 years old. Those who reported more mind-wandering had shorter telomeres, while those who reported easily being able to engage with their current activities had longer telomeres.

An ability to focus on the present appears to promote health on the cellular level. But researchers say the cause deserves more investigation: It's unclear whether getting distracted leads to shorter telomeres or vice versa.

STROKE

Stanford center gets certification

Stanford University's stroke center became the first in the country to meet a new level of certification for state-of-the-art treatment for the most complex kinds of strokes, the Joint Commission accrediting agency said Friday.

A team of experts from the Joint Commission evaluated Stanford's stroke center last month and found it met the requirements for the higher-level certification, which includes 24-hour availability of specialized treatments, advanced imaging capabilities and competency to care for complex stroke patients.

BREAST FEEDING

Encouragement efforts pay off

Stanford University researchers helped 11 California hospitals improve their breast-feeding rates for premature infants, which reduces the babies' risk of complications associated with being premature and improves their overall health.

The chances that premature babies will be breast-fed is strongly influenced by the hospital where they were born or cared for in their early days.

The Stanford researchers worked with the hospitals for more than a year and followed up for an additional six months. The hospitals increased their rates of breast feeding for babies in the neonatal intensive care unit from 55 percent when they were discharged from the hospital to 64 percent.

Researchers said the information and encouragement techniques used in the breast-feeding study may be used to help hospitals adopt other underused but recommended practices.

The study appeared online on Nov. 5 in the journal Pediatrics.

- Victoria Colliver

FLU

Subjects sought for new vaccine

Stanford researchers are looking for people to participate in a clinical trial that is examining an experimental DNA flu vaccine.

Instead of relying on inactivated or weakened flu virus, as vaccines do now, the experimental vaccine includes genetically engineered DNA that, once injected into the upper arm, produces influenza virus proteins in the body. The body's immune response to current vaccines is to create antibodies, but the DNA vaccine will trigger a cellular immune response in addition to creating the antibodies.

The trial, which is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, is meant to evaluate the safety of the experimental vaccine when it is used alone or in conjunction with the traditional vaccines and to gauge the body's immune response to the vaccine.

Researchers are looking for healthy participants between the ages of 18 and 64 who have not had a flu shot this year. For more information, call (650) 498-7284 or e-mail Vaccines_Program@stanford.edu.

BACTERIA

Process could help fight staph

Removing the amino acid glycine from a type of bacteria's cells weakens its cell walls and could make the bacteria more vulnerable to antibacterial treatments, according to a new Stanford study.

Glycine helps bridge large molecules called peptidoglycan to form the cell wall of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Prior studies have found that when the bridges are shorter, bacterial development slows and antibiotic resistance drops.

The Stanford study found that it was the presence of glycine that contributed to the strength of the cell wall. The study also showed that glycine levels change depending on the bacteria's growth stage.

When researchers reduced the amount of glycine, for example, there were fewer bridges to connect the peptidoglycan molecules earlier in the bacteria's growth. Weakening the cell walls through glycine deprivation could make antibacterial treatments more effective.

The study was published in the journal Biochemistry.

- Drew Joseph

HEART FAILURE

Easing depression aids health

Patients with heart failure who were also depressed saw a significant improvement in their overall health when their depression was alleviated, including reduced symptoms related to their heart problems, according to researchers from UC Davis and Duke University.

Their study looked at 469 men and women with both heart failure and depression, roughly half of whom completed surveys about their health or took a six-minute walking test.

Participants whose depression improved during the study had better survey scores on a variety of health measures, including physical limitations and symptom frequency. Among those who took the walking test, patients with reduced depression were able to walk on average about 154 feet farther than those who still suffered major depression.

Nationwide, there are 5 million Americans with heart failure, and about 20 percent of them are also diagnosed with depression.

Results of the study were published Nov. 20 in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.